Land policies for growth and poverty reduction

This report sets out the results and key insights from recent research on land policy and analysis of specific interventions relating to land. The aim is to highlight the importance of nuanced policy advice, but also to illustrate some general principles for formulating such policy advice in specific country settings.Conclusions and recommendations include:providing secure tenure to land is needed to improve the welfare of the poor, in particular, by enhancing the asset base of those, such as women, whose land rights are often neglected. It also creates the incentives needed for investment, a key element underlying sustainable economic growth. The report discusses different mechanisms that can be used to promote tenure security, their advantages and disadvantages, and the ways in which they can fit into a broader development strategyfacilitating the exchange and distribution of land at low cost is central to expediting land access by productive but land-poor producers and, once the economic environment is right, the development of financial markets that rely on the use of land as collateral. Removing impediments to rental market transactions can help generate considerable equity advantages and at the same time establish the basis for a positive investment climate and the diversification of economic activity, especially in the rural non-farm sector. Non-market mechanisms for transferring land (e.g. inheritance, award of public and state lands) have historically played a major role in either facilitating or obstructing broad land access and effective land use. Policymakers should take careful account of these processesgovernments have a clear role to play in promoting and contributing to socially desirable land allocation and utilisation. Appropriate incentives for sustainable land use are also required. Mechanisms, ranging from taxation to regulation and land use planning, are needed to address these issues. Effective dissemination of knowledge and experience requires that research be informed by the broad range of problems policymakers face and be integrated into a broader dialogue with the Bank’s development partners